Life

Three Czech fans got on stage not long ago with the Irish rock group U2. In the front rows of a packed stadium in Berlin, they held up signs saying they knew how to play one of U2’s songs. And it worked: the trio got invited up. But the real trick wasn’t getting on stage, as unlikely as that was. That was the easy part! No, it was the performing that must have really been tough.

A spoof song, set to a popular 1970s Czech tune Jožin z Bažin, makes fun of Prime Minister Vladimir Putin's hard man image as the savior of Russia's battered economy and has been winning fans on the internet.